Plastic Spoons

PLASTIC SPOONS                                                                                                                             July 26, 2014

                While visiting my wife’s uncle today in a local nursing home facility his roommate called for me to come to his bedside.  I ignored his first two calls since Uncle Albert was in pain and probably not far from death’s door.  I thought it rude for the roommate to want to draw my attention away from my own desperate relative.

                After his third attempt, however, I went through the curtain that separated the beds and spoke to the roommate.  He asked me if I had any plastic spoons.  When I told him that I did not have any plastic spoons, he asked if I could find him some.  He wanted to show me something, and after searching through a couple of small bags that he had, he found a container that held several spoons.  There were some plastic spoons and two metal spoons.  Pointing out the metal ones he said, “I am going to turn these in.  I like plastic spoons best.”

                The question that I wanted to ask, but did not, was:  “How many plastic spoons do you need?”  After all, how many spoons does a man need who is lying on his back in bed nearly all the time?  But, of course, I was kind and gracious to him.  After all, I am a minister, and it was obvious that he had a fixation on plastic spoons and collected them.

                This episode at the nursing home is symbolic of my experience in ministry.  When attempting to deal with matters of life and death, with matters spiritual and eternal, most people want “plastic spoons.”  They demand the pastor’s time for such trivial matters—often petty, childish matters that in my mind do not match my high calling.  I’m at fault—I allowed it to happen.  Far too often, the insignificant crowds out the significant in a pastor’s life and ministry.